


Hogwarts Unrivalled

by Idle_Hans



Series: Pocket Universities [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, world-building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:40:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24857749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idle_Hans/pseuds/Idle_Hans
Series: Pocket Universities [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798099
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	Hogwarts Unrivalled

"Hogwarts charges admission fees on a sliding scale, so as to allow every magical child to attend. The poor pay a little, the rich pay a lot. Muggleborns pay almost nothing."

"The Malfoys must love that!"

"They probably hate it, but it's their choice to send Draco here. They do have other options."

"Like Durmstrang?"

"Yes, or private tuition here in Britain — which for them would be cheaper than Hogwarts."

"Really?"

"Oh yes. There's no shortage of people qualified to teach magic. Whenever a position at Hogwarts opens up, there are never less than dozens of applicants. Excepting Defence Against the Dark Arts, that is. If the Malfoys and the other blood-purist families wanted to do it, they could easily afford to set up a small school in the spare wing of someone's house, and run it any way they wanted. By sharing costs they could hire the best teachers available, and most of them would still be paying less than their Hogwarts fees."

"So why don't they? They'd never have to mix with us 'mudbloods' ever again."

"Three reasons. Firstly: Hogwarts has a thousand years of prestige. You can't replace that with a new school, no matter how exclusive. Second: Apart from the few hundred people who live in Hogsmeade and Diagon, wizarding families dwell in scattered, isolated clusters hidden among the muggles. But nearly every magical child in the British Isles attends the one school. It's an unparalleled opportunity to meet new people and form friendships, alliances, romances, and a sense of being part of a magical nation. Third reason: The library."

"The _library_?"

"Yes. The Hogwarts library. There's nothing even remotely the size of it anywhere else in the English-speaking world. Unless you have access to the ministry archive, or some old family's private collection, a book that is not for sale in a shop somewhere is available only at Hogwarts. Every summer, the hallway between the library and the rest of the castle is magically sealed, then a stairway leading to a door opening directly onto the Hogsmeade road is unlocked. And the general public come flocking. Researchers, mastery students, spellcrafters, historians .... even Unspeakables from the Department of Mysteries, if you can believe it! It's a nice little earner for the school, believe me. Having free access to the Hogwarts library for ten months each year, for seven years, that's a privilege no child ever appreciates until adult life."

"Why is it only the summer holidays?"

"It used to be winter and spring holidays as well, but there were some ugly incidents involving visitors and the children of their enemies. Hogwarts has to be a safe refuge for its students above all other considerations, and you can't deny library access to anyone staying at the castle over the winter or spring holidays to study for OWLs or NEWTs, so the compromise was to ban students from the castle over summer."

"I see. .... Is that another reason why there's no shortage of applicants to teach here?

"I'd say so, though you'd be burning the candle everywhere to teach a core subject and do private work at the same time."

"Hang on, back to the revolving door of the DADA classroom. In 'ninety-five the ministry appointed Umbitch because a DADA professor couldn't be found, but when that happened again the following year, Dumbledore simply shunted Snape sideways into the Defense position and hired another Potions teacher without any trouble whatsoever. So why didn't he do that the year before .... unless he wanted the curse to kill Umbitch for sticking the ministry's nose into his school?"

"Well .... maybe not kill her, but I think you've answered your own question."


End file.
